Most individuals simply file their state tax forms and leave it at that, too busy with their lives and some even hoping not to attract any government attention. But a growing number of our fellow citizens and residents are deeply concerned over where “their money” is going. Almost everyone agrees with paying for firefighters, sanitation workers, and other civil servants, but even then there can be a lot of controversy over the details.

Take educators for example. Again, nearly everyone agrees that teachers are needed. But how to compensate them with our tax dollars, exactly? Currently, many individuals across the nation are up in arms over teacher perks and salaries.

It’s felt that teachers have things much too comfortable, and there are folks who would like to make the profession of teaching a job like any other, which in the United States means “hire and fire at will.”

These folks want to, they say, hold teachers more “accountable” for student performance, which is usually proposed to be assessed by standardised test scores. But the other side of the argument believes that teaching isn’t just a job like any other, that the training of minds and the inspiration of hearts is not something which can be neatly measured on a quarterly or yearly basis like some corporate earnings report.

I and my friends did not have a camping tent among us since it was just supposed to have been an easy day-hike over (and up) easy terrain. A thousand-foot mountain affords nice enough views, to be sure, such that the curvature of the earth could be faintly seen, but it isn’t considered a big deal by any who hike or climb real mountains.

So, of course, we didn’t bring a camping tent. And sure enough we get lost, and with only an additional two hours of sunlight left most of us decide to backtrack downhill – except for me and another friend. And although we do eventually summit, as novices we make the mistake of mistiming our descent, such that it’s already twilight by the time we decide to head back.

You see, being so inexperienced we mistook the fact that there was still light in the sky for having enough time to get back down. But of course we were at the summit, where we had a fantastic view of our surroundings – this was Mount Buck, the highest point in the whole Lake George area of New York.

And although the sun was low on the horizon it appeared wonderfully bright all around. Golds mixed with blues turned pink and white – it was a swirl of colours matching the happy dance of emotions within that we’ve finally reached the top.

Lost in our reveries, we did not recognize that not only does the sun set in seconds, but that in a forest the canopy of foliage will make even mid-afternoon seem much, much later to the human eye….

Never underestimate the power of Mother Nature; the weather can change in a sudden flash in numerous places upon the earth. Indeed, our planet is a living one, and the very ground upon which we walk can betray us. A rockslide, or worse, can present insurmountable obstacles in our way, necessitating some fieldcraft to maneuver around.

Thus it is always a great idea to take along camping supplies, just in case. You do not need to bring everything, but some things are absolutely essential. At a minimum you will most likely require some kind of shelter, so a tent or sleeping bag should be the first thing on your list. Food and water is next, and it’s a good idea to bring at least one day’s worth, though three days’ is the standard recommended minimum.

Emergency supplies such as first-aid kits and flare signals ought to also be packed. Obviously, a lot depends on your choice of venue, the time of year, and your own familiarity with the location as well as your general expertise in the field, but having the right gear around should disaster or, even, just a relatively minor setback, strike won’t cost you too much in terms of weight.

Important camping gear should be no more than thirty pounds or so, easily portable and convenient. Do not skimp on common sense! Most serious hikers, campers, and outdoors types know that the possibility of danger is often present, however minimized. If you are just a casual camper or hiker, then you truly need to do things by the book and think a few steps ahead!

When you do not know much to begin with, everything is educational, isn’t it? And so the world is full of educational toys as a result, as any object can be played with and, in the very playing with, help to develop the motor skills and cognitive abilities which toymakers claim their products foster in a child.

And yet clearly there are toys that do seem to somehow offer much more than entertainment value, for example programmable robot kits. So perhaps a better way to think about educational toys is to not regard them as being completely educational or not, in which case it is arguable that a plaything could be made of practically anything and that play itself is an inherently educational activity.

The confusion, as ever (according to most semanticists, anyway), concerns semantics, or meaning. If we mean by the term not merely something that can be played with such that skillsets of some kind are fostered, but instead those toys which are obviously more capable of fostering a skillset, particularly one that’s not readily developed otherwise, then shopping becomes substantially easier!

Thus, it will turn out that puzzles like a Rubik’s Cube are extremely educational while alphabet blocks are a lot less so. And as parents, we want to encourage our kids to not only explore but push their intellectual envelope, so while good old-fashioned dolls and the like may stimulate the imagination, much more ingenious toys can also stimulate such higher-order faculties as pattern recognition and problem solving.

After all, it can be argued that the Greek vase has set the aesthetic standard for the Western Civilization for hundreds if not thousands of years. Having one on your desk, mantle, or shelf can create the right atmosphere for oneself to be inspired! There is something to be said about having a faithful reproduction of a museum masterpiece in your own home or office. Imagine the feeling on your next trip to the museum as you walk through a collection, identifying those which you own a personal copy of!

Museum replicas allow us all to play the part of a refined collector of antiques – not “antiques” in the now commonly debased sense of someone’s grandmother’s grandmother’s quilt abandoned at a yard sale, but treasures from the ancients now owns to enjoy thanks to the painstaking skills of replica sculptors who work in the traditional methods with traditional materials.

Nearly always handmade, such replicas of vases can be so faithfully reproduced as to fool even professional appraisers! Available in a wide variety of styles, these fine works are truly no less art objects in themselves, so exquisitely crafted as to warrant being their own museum pieces!

They also tend to be very affordable, as well, allowing true connoisseurs the opportunity to own more than one. Finally, they make fantastic gifts, too: thoughtful, and a little out of the ordinary, after all its not everyday you get a Greek vase as a present.

Kuchisake Onna, or “slit-mouthed woman” in Japanese, was originally a really gorgeous woman whose jealous husband cut her mouth from ear to ear, taunting, “Who will think you’re beautiful now!” Ever since then, on foggy nights, she can be seen roaming around in a surgical mask. When she encounters somebody, typically youth, she will shyly inquire whether the person thinks she is beautiful.

If the response is yes, Onna will take off her surgical mask and ask, “How about now?” Different versions of the legend give various outcomes if the answer remains affirmative, all bad: she will either cut the individual from ear to ear to resemble herself or kill the person – or both – or, inexplicably, give a large blood-soaked ruby and walk away.

Different versions of this tale provide for the same general set of choices even if the original answer had been negative – mutilation or murder. Basically, meeting Kuchisake Onna is bad luck. However, a lot more modern versions nowadays advise that responding “You’re average” or “So-so” or even asking her what she thinks of one’s own beauty will turn the tables on her and confuse her, providing an opportunity to escape.

And, in one of those only-in-Japan kind of things, there is even the tactic of basically informing her that you must be on your way, so as to embarrass her for forgetting her manners and making her excuse herself from your presence!

For the most part, we will consider only Queens and Brooklyn neighborhoods, as these are the ones that best fit our criteria for all-around value. The other boroughs are either too expensive or too run-down, as in the case of Manhattan and the Bronx, respectively, or just too remote and isolated, as with the case of Staten Island. Of course, the Bronx does have nice neighborhoods, too, but these are going to be expensive, and you’ll have to avoid the rest of your borough if you want to see something civilized. Industry observers like Isaac Toussie note that while Manhattan also has its pockets of urban blight, anything decent is going to be astronomically priced. Staten Island is just another world altogether and you might as well not bother living in New York City, then!

So Queens and Brooklyn it is. Brooklyn is by far the more storied of the two, with more offerings of high-brow culture if that’s important to you. Queens offers culinary adventurers the best possibilities outside Manhattan, with the most authentic tastes at any price. Queens also tends to be much more diverse, whereas Brooklyn practically invented the ethnic enclave. Finally, Queens schools are better on average, whereas Brooklyn’s, while good, trails far behind in overall comparison.

So what are these great “nabes” and where are they? Well, in Brooklyn you will want Williamsburg and Greenpoint for the bohemian scene. Solid, genuine middle-class areas include Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton, and Midwood. Canarsie would have once made the cut but has been on its way down. Borough Park seems like an “in-between” situation and can still swing either way. Your basically upper middle-class places are Dyker Heights, Marine Park, Brighton Beach, and Sheepshead Bay.

In Queens the toniest nabes are Forest Hills and Kew Gardens. Almost as good are Flushing (and East Flushing) and Bayside. Astoria is known for its night life. Sunnyside, Woodside, Ridgewood, and Elmhurst (but avoid East Elmhurst) are more working-class but still often quite civilized to live in. Middle Village, Queens Village, Maspeth, and Juniper Valley are demographically between the working and (true) middle classes.

Outside these areas, you’ll probably want to stay away from. We’ll cover those in another article. But suffice it to say, even the areas mentioned here can be undesirable on their “border areas,” where they abut the urban blight of the next neighborhood over, as implied in the case of Elmhurst and East Elmhurst mentioned earlier. So exercise all due diligence and thoroughly research a neighborhood with some personal experience!

But these are quite the exception, and usually only available this way as a result of copyright concerns. I typically avoid these kinds of continuing professional education courses unless the lecturer happens to be some hot-shot lawyer or the material is especially interesting to me.

To me, the primary advantage of online CPE courses is how it’s possible to go at one’s own pace. And as a third-year associate at one of the largest corporate law firms in the world, believe me when I say how much I appreciate that convenience! I work sixty to seventy-hour weeks, including weekends of course, and that’s not even considering all the years of studying I’ve already gone through: by now I have twenty-some-odd years of schooling – significantly much more than two whole thirds of my life!

So anything at all that lets me take it easy a little is most welcome, and being able to pursue continuing professional education over the worldwide web makes a bad situation a little better.

I mean, I actually do not want to do it – but it is a requirement for periodic relicensing as an attorney, and i am not ready to quit the profession just yet, if ever – so being able to at least take my time with it takes some of the onerousness out of it all. Plus, sometimes it’s free if it’s a pilot course, an experimental course for which I receive free CPE credits in exchange for providing some feedback, making things even less onerous!

Take your time prior to ordering:

There is no need to rush into anything. This is a sizeable purchase and you should take the time to research your used or refurbished Macbook deal. You will want to make sure you are genuinely getting a bargain and that it is exactly what you are looking for and please don’t forget to calculate in the shipping costs.

Seeking out the right seller:

Look for sellers with plenty of positive feedback. Be wary of sellers with unfavorable, low, or zero feedback.

Read the description:

Read the description very meticulously. Make sure all the accessories that you will need, such as the power cord, are included.

Ask questions:

If you are hesitant about anything, ask questions. Be certain to ask any questions previous to bidding on the unit. Don’t forget once you bid you are bound to the bid.